Every parents worse nightmare is having their child taken from them. Recently I became a parent and it’s one of the things I think about everyday, how hard it would be to lose a child that you’ve grown to love so much. In a way it has made me a very overprotective father over my daughter, and whenever I bring her out in public my eyes never leave her little body. I fear the sick people of the world who would kidnap any child and sell them on the black market or molest them. Mr. Hands is a book that in a respect shows the horror’s of child molestation, kidnapping, child murder and the grief that one parent suffers and her actions to get even with the people who commit such violent acts upon children.
Mr. Hands has three different stories going on, the first one takes place in a bar where a patron is telling the bar tender, a sheriff and a reverend the two stories about this mysterious little figure he holding simply known as Mr. Hands. The two stories that he tells however all work there way together at the end. One story is about a young man named Ronnie whom has a learning disability, however Ronnie has a psychic gift where he can see the future of children well before they are born, he can tell if they will live a happy life or if they will suffer. He’s able to end their pain if they wish. However let me back up a bit. Ronnie in the beginning of the story meets a women named Lucy, who is pregnant, without ruining the story for you I’ll just let you know that the two of them will meet up again sometime towards the end of the book. Speaking of the end, the last one hundred pages of the book involve Lucy and her acquisition of the Mr. Hands doll. Lucy had a daughter whom was kidnapped at a carnival named Sarah, stricken with grief the only thing of importance that the police were able to find was a carved statue that her daughter Sarah named Mr. Hands. The figure was given to her at the carnival by Thalidomide Man. Lucy throws the figure of Mr. Hands into a well like hole on top of a memorial, little does she know that the powers that be will transform Mr. Hands into something not of this world and Lucy has complete control over him. She uses him to stop all the people of the world that hurt children, however Mr. Hands is unforgiving to those that Lucy tells him to take care of, and a costly mistake could prove fatal.
My overall concept of the way this book was written by author Gary A.Braunbeck is that I believe that as a writer he tried to bring out the real fear within any parent that dare read this book. He did in me, however I thank him for that as he helped show me certain elements within the mind of people and I was able to gain some knowledge on being a better parent, by keeping an eye on my child at all times, because you never know what demented human being might do if you don’t. However the puzzling thing about this book is that the majority of it tells us the story of Ronnie, a man who one would expect to be a ruthless child murder, but is actually a savor. Yes, I know it sounds odd, but in order to understand my point you’ll have to read the book. But the point I’m trying to make here is that Mr. Hands does not come into play in the book until the very end, and sequentially what you get for the first two hundred pages or so is a mystery thriller. The last few pages are where the horror and supernatural elements of the book take place.
The character development in this book is really good, especially that of Ronnie and Lucy. I did however feel let down on the fact that we never really get to know much about what really happened to Lucy’s daughter Sarah. I would have like to see the author go in that direction, even though it would of been off course in the story. Another problem I had with the book was although I liked the ending of the book, to me it felt like the last fifty pages were rushed. It feels like right before we get to know what Mr. Hands is all about the story just ends, and we really don’t get to really know why the powers that be chose to create him for a women who grieved the loss of her daughter.
Overall, Mr. Hands is a good book, As stated above I did have a few slight problems with the book, but the story is very interesting and the characters are solid. In the end I think really what I wanted from this book was more. The story its self is only two hundred and sixty nine pages long, however we do get treated to a preview of Braunbeck’s next novel; Kiss of the Mudman.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
